Here’s what our Film Editor thought watching Saltburn at the LFF…
. The LFF is one of the biggest, most exciting cinematic festivals from around the globe - and it is actually quite overwhelming. With over 165 feature films being shown during the 11-day festival, it is difficult to know where to start - but the festival's opening night gala movieHeading to the Picturehouse at Leicester Square at the crack of dawn to join a long line of sleepy yet enthusiastic members of the media, I was immediately struck by the camaraderie of such an occasion.
Indeed, while at first glance you might be thinking that this is the start of an Evelyn Waugh-inspired romp, and certainly there are many nods to Brideshead Revisited, from Charles narrating his summer at the stately home to his wide-eyed arrival on the ground to Felix’s family home, but this is no charming foray into the land of the very wealthy.
The house’s beauty, as well as Felix and Oliver’s closeness, is often off-set with moments of vileness; vomit splattered across a sink’s soap dish, the inside of a toilet bowl, a carved stone lodged in filth on a river’s edge - all are a constant reminder of the vileness lurking beneath the surface of this idyllic place.
Part of the unease of watching Saltburn is, like Oliver, you are waiting for the other shoe to fall - and perhaps I should have foreseen just how the family’s perfect summer comes crashing down - but I really didn’t. There are also moments of jaw-dropping darkness at times, so much so that during one scene I had to close my eyes over second-hand horror at what I was witnessing - and I love a good horror movie.
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